Bill Clinton: Harlem Restaurant Initiative

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Now that Hillary Clinton is no longer a candidate for the presidency, her husband, former President Bill Clinton must be spending more time in his office. His office happens to be in New York City's Harlem, where soul food and ethnic restaurants mix with fast food joints. Perhaps Bill is thinking of his waistline (and heart) and therefore getting involved in the revitalization of Harlem's restaurants. Today, Marcus Samuelsson is kicking off the latest initiative of the William J. Clinton Foundation, The Harlem Restaurant Program - a program of the Clinton Foundation's Economic Opportunity Initiative (CEO) – which is a collaborative effort with Booz & Company, and NYU Stern School of Business. The Harlem Restaurant Program will last eight months and will provide professional development opportunities to established restaurateurs in Harlem, better enabling them to deliver improved products and services to their customers. Through speakers and discussions focused on the four critical components of leading a restaurant: sales & marketing, finance, operations, and general management, the Harlem Restaurant Program will allow restaurateurs to: better understand their industry and keep up with industry trends; better address the specific issues and challenges they face daily; become better leaders within their company; and to connect with local restaurateurs in the Harlem community. On the list of critical components, cuisine is noticeably missing. Of course, Booz and the Stern School are not experts in cooking. By why isn't there a cooking component, in the form of menu improvement, included? You would think that the foundation would also involve an African-American celebrity chef like G. Garvin or Jeff Henderson, rather than a Swedish-Ethiopian chef, however qualified Marcus undoubtedly is. But the fact is that Harlem restaurateurs will have access to excellent marketing and business advice at a time when the global financial crisis is putting enormous pressure on restaurants to retain business. Super Chef hopes that the initiative will lead to a Harlem-wide tourism initiative to attract conventional tourists, culinary tourists, and locals to restaurants. Previous articles: [Chefs & Politics - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging --> back to Super Chef